"He who marches out of step hears another drum." ~ Ken Kesey
We use it! We switched from Type K ink, because we were having all sorts of issues. So far it's a little thinner, but seems to be working out good.
Quote from: ericheartsu on February 13, 2018, 10:03:21 AMWe use it! We switched from Type K ink, because we were having all sorts of issues. So far it's a little thinner, but seems to be working out good.Which emulsion? Did you change your coating techniques?
Who is using it? What have you had to change if anything? Jury is still out at my shop?
Hi Dan!I listened to what you said about humidity, took it to heart, and tested it while I was visiting a shop in Louisiana right after thanksgiving. I was there for a week so I had a chance to watch changes as they were happening. I have seen these results in other shops as well, but I do not remember their specs.This shop uses the Saati Graphic HU42 dual cure. T6 ink in their iimage. 12 passes unidirectional hi detail.When I got there it was freezing outside and the humidity was at 27% inside the screen room. We worked on getting relative humidity back up to 40%. You had talked about the relative room humidity working better at 40% or higher.Slight segway - I want to try and qualify the emulsion thickness needed to really see this effect happen. If you are using lower mesh screens or thin thread with 20%+ eom, you will see these effects faaar faster than you will on 180/225/305 mesh or if you have very thin stencils. The thicker your emulsion deposit, the faster the fluid absorption/cracked earth effect you will get. We still saw some "drying" of the t6 ink on the screen causing that cracked earth look - some have called it a "pebbled" texture (this was from another emulsion sales rep). It was FAR worse when the screen room environment was dry - the screens tested were from a room at 35% humidity. When the screen room environment got to 40% ink dry qualities improved. Over 40% things got better still.What I noticed was between 40% and maybe 45% the screens reacted better with the t6 ink. Above that, it may act even better, but now we tip towards a point where a dry screen is going into a very moist environment - and at that point if the screen absorbs just enough moisture - like when a screen, or screens, are left sitting during break for 15/20 minutes - it can end up having issues resolving fine dots and details. I never saw any wicking problems with the ink - but I did see "fluid spread". Like an oil ring from greasy food around a printed image. But only if the screen had to sit for 3-5 minutes (like backing up a left chest with the back image on the same screen, one image has to sit there until the other is done). This is directly related to the ink drying out and looking like cracked earth - as far as I can tell. I could not see another reason for the effect.As for myself and the shop I was at. M&R told us to change from D2A to t6. We had no issues with D2A on our screens (that I remember) but we did see head issues within a year of using the D2A (as apparently many customers did for various reasons). After I started running a few screens with the new head and ink - I noticed what was going on and complained. M&R then fought us tooth and nail saying there was absolutely nothing wrong with the new ink and everything is my fault with the ink drying and that I should change my emulsion. I fought back and heard after a month that M&R was starting work on formulating a new ink.....I have heard from BIG shops that any emulsion that is a dual cure/added diazo has some level of issues with the t6 ink.I was using Murakami's T9 with diazo from day one with my iimage. I never changed it.Maybe diazo is a major culprit?Hope this is of a help to any one who reads it!
So I've been "out of the loop" for a while here....What is the reason/selling point for this new stuff? We run the D2A(just got 2 new liters in yesterday) and I'm just trying to see if this is something I should research or know about?
Quote from: TCT on December 13, 2018, 02:07:12 PMSo I've been "out of the loop" for a while here....What is the reason/selling point for this new stuff? We run the D2A(just got 2 new liters in yesterday) and I'm just trying to see if this is something I should research or know about?It dries the print head, and causes weird satellite dots. At least it did for us.